Portland, Oregon, my home town, is a wonderful city! I live in the NE neighborhood my father grew up in, where his grandparents cultivated an orchard in the 19th century, and their parents settled here at the end of their journey on the Oregon Trail in 1852.

But like most Oregonians, I am a newcomer. The Chinook tribes, who lived here for millennia, were and are resourceful, resilient, highly intelligent people.

Their creative spirit permeates this region, and wild places are still close by to teach and inspire us.
​Maybe that's why the Pacific NW is a hub of creative innovation, existing as it does, within a unique and sustaining natural and cultural landscape.